章節 51: Chapter 51
Khai walked Ana back to her room after breakfast. She agreed to meet Meghan for lunch and waved goodbye to everyone before he took her hand and they made their way out of the dining hall.
"Are you excited for the game next week?"
He shrugged. "We're going to win it."
"If you win, you get Friday off from training, don't you?" She was almost jumping as she asked him.
Khai bit his cheek to fight a smile. He laughed at her excitement, but he also laughed at his already battered self control. "I do. We can leave on Friday morning." He was torn at what to feel at that time. While his heart was elated at the thought of spending three days with her, his mind and body were burning with heat.
Unable to contain her mirth, Ana squeezed his had as tight as she could, but hissed in pain almost immediately. He was holding her right hand and the wound still hurt with that kind of pressure.
Khai frowned. "Be careful! Please." he said, examining her hand to make sure she hadn't torn the scab open, then, he placed a kiss on the wound, as if to soothe her pain.
"You said you know the layout of the entire school, don't you?" She continued.
"I do. Why?"
"Do you happen to know where the forbidden section in the library is?" Her hopeful eyes looked up at him, taking a last shot to resolve her curiosity.
"That's not on the layout. We only learn all the routes and exits in case we have to exit the academy, or worse, fight in it."
Heaving a sigh, Ana cast her eyes downward. She was expecting this and it looked like there was no way to access what was in those missing pages. "The tome Margarett recommended has a few pages with forbidden information, and the complete version is only available in the restricted section." Sensing Khai's questioning gaze on her, she explained her disappointment.
When they reached her door, Khai smacked kisses on her cheeks before sprinting back to training. Time passed quickly as she met Meghan for lunch and spent the next four hours going over pages and pages that explained how to rotate a plane about the center of the square by ninety degrees.
She trained with Khai, rushed through her dinner and handed him the keys to her room. She was completely fatigued both mentally and physically, so she dozed off immediately after taking a shower.
Khai's voice slowly came into focus as she felt a pair of large hands gently shaking her shoulders.
"Ana….Ana, wake up."
Her room was still dark, the only faint source of light being the moonlight spilling from the closed windows. She rubbed her eyes open to see Khai sitting up on her bed.
"Are you up? I want to take you somewhere. If you're up for it."
"Now? Where….what time is it?" Ana mumbled groggily.
"It's 2AM, Let's go to the library."
"I can't look at another page of Isometry."
He laughed softly at her sleepy grumbling. Khai's voice held a hint of mischief as he spoke. "I thought I'd take you to the forbidden section."
Three seconds later, Ana sprang up and gaped at him, wide eyed. "You found it?" She whispered even though there was no one in the room. "How?"
"Austin and I took a look after soccer practice, we found a hidden invisibility rune between one of the shelves towards the back."
Ana circled her arms around him, suddenly feeling emotional. She had only mentioned the forbidden section to him in passing and did not expect him to do anything about it. His actions sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "Thank you." She whispered.
He kissed her nose lightly before hoisting her off the bed with him. Ana quickly gulped down on some water and took his hand as they made their way to the library.
Although the path was lit, Ana felt a bit intimidated by the eerie silence and emptiness of the main building in the dark. The sheer vastness of the area made it slightly frightening.
Khai walked ahead of Ana, and she couldn't help but admire the library as they approached it. The moonlight made it seem even larger than it actually was.
"Careful, watch your step," Khai warned her as they climbed the stairs. They reached the third floor and went all the way back, stopping at the shelves labeled 'Historical Maps.'
Making their way towards the wall, where the shelf ended, Khai crouched down to the section at the very bottom and pulled out several books. He then located a false cover behind the shelf and opened it to reveal a hidden space. Pulling out a small torch light from his pocket, he shined it on a white circular device. It was a runes with ancient symbols that Ana couldn't recognize. In the center of the device was an orb that looked like an earth stone.
Ana joined Khai, crouching beside him to admire the device in wonder. "How did you find this? It's not possible that you went through every book," she whispered, her voice low to avoid echoing in the empty room.
"Wahrens have access to basic rune detectors," Khai explained. He then placed a disk around the orb and pushed it into the device. It started to spin slowly and Ana heard three clicks as the device separated the orb from the rune.
"Nothing happened," Ana mumbled, her eyes fixed on the rune.
Khai cupped her face with his hand and directed her gaze to her left. Ana's jaw dropped at the sight. The wall to their left had disappeared, revealing an expansive section of the library, almost the size of Dean Wilders' office. As if it had not just materialized out of thin air, the forbidden section fit in seamlessly with the rest of the library, as if it had always been there.
"Look for what you want and point it to me. I'll grab the book for you. Do you understand?" His voice was somber, almost stern as he warned her. "They probably have traps set up in the whole space. Do not touch anything Ana."
She nodded slowly a sense of fear and thrill spreading through her mind. She grasped Khai's hand tightly as they stepped into the section together. The air was thick with the smell of old books and magic. There were a total of twenty four shelves, separated by narrow passages and twelve rows on each side. Khai held the torch on the labels of each shelf, asking Ana to stop him when she found the right one.
"It's this one!" She whispered as she spotted the section on energy flows and mana manipulation. The section was smaller than the rest, splitting mid way into a section with books on 'Merfolk'.
Ana searched the books to find the copy on mana principles and pointed it out to Khai. Just as his fingers touched the book to grab it, a loud hissing noise filled the room. Ana's eyes widened in fear as Khai pulled her behind him, just in time as a large metal trap shot out from the shelf, narrowly missing her face. They were now surrounded by metal spears that imprisoned them against the shelf.
"What the hell was that?" Ana exclaimed, her voice quivering.
"Don't move," Khai said as he carefully examined the mechanism, trying to find a way to disarm it. After a few minutes, he finally located the release mechanism and with a quick twist, the trap shot back into its original position.
Khai finally retrieved the book, cautiously checking it for any other traps. Satisfied that it was safe, he handed it to Ana.
"Let's go," he whispered, leading her out of the forbidden section. "We need to leave before we trigger any more traps."
Ana held the book tightly to her chest as they ran out of the section. Khai quickly reinserted the orb into the rune while removing the disk. Ana felt a wave of relief wash over her. If it weren't for Khai's quick reflexes, the spears would have pierced her face, skewering her like meat.
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